The Shadows We Love
by Silverwolf0618
Summary: Yeah, um, if you read the old summary, ignore it. That was back when I had a corporeal idea of how the plot was going to play, not just ideas splitting into thousands of subplots that make no sense together
1. Chapter 1

_There, is a swelling storm_

 _And it takes control_

 _Of the person that I thought I was_

 _The boy I used to know_

 _Waves,_ Dean Lewis

(I tend to edit my fanfics a lot, so you may want to check the old chapters once in a while, just saying)

Linh stood at Umber's tree at the Wanderling Woods. Something in her had been drawn, day by day, here. The day she saw it, some part of her had snagged on the tree's cream-coloured bark, silvery blue flowers and jet black tips and its long, slender branches. Keefe had jokingly asked if she was dating the tree; everybody had rolled their eyes, laughing silently.

The wind whipped her hair into her face; she brushed it off impatiently. She'd looked at Biana, to see if she was laughing too. Linh's annoying habit. Humans, they don't know much, compared to elves, but their psychology tips, _they_ were what put the puzzle together.

Well, no use here staring at a tree, looking for something even _she_ didn't know what is. It'll come to her sooner or later.

She turned and left, wondering where to sleep. No way she was going to sleep in Choralmere, and she would rather not let Sophie know that Linh had been, in a way, homeless for the past week.

Or it maybe it was that Linh really wanted to go to Everglen.

She sighed, _really?_

She didn't even need the answer.

Giving up, she light leaped to the gates of Everglen, forming a hand of water to attract their attention. She saw a motion at the window next to the stairs, and evaporated the water.

For a moment, all she saw was the chocolate hair, and slim figure, her heart leaping as she thought it was Biana, but then her heart fell as she registered that it was Della.

 _Brain, honestly, she had been letting me sleep here at times in the past few weeks._

Her brain remained unconvinced.

Della smiled at Linh. "Do you want to borrow one of the rooms again?"

Linh smiled too. "Yes, thank you. Though it's a very low bar, this is way better than Choralmere." Of course. Every moment in Choralmere, Linh could feel how her father wanted her to disappear.

Della nodded, showing Linh inside. Linh was still getting used to Everglen. She's used to splendor, of course: Quan was, and still is, very obsessed with appearances. What was the strange to her is the simple, relatively speaking, way they decorated it, unlike how Choralmere is: impossible to describe without purple prose.

"Linh!" Biana exclaimed, grinning as she flew down the stairs, making Linh's heart kick. Biana grabbed her arm. "Keefe just sent us something you _have_ to see."

Biana brought her to the far end of the reception hall, towards a painting. A lump rose in Linh's throat. It was like the Vacker Paintings or the paintings Keefe had done for the Ruewens, but this one featured Tam and Linh. _I figured it was just you guys who are missing paintings. Welcome to the family,_ he wrote under his signature.

Biana touched it gently, "he didn't want to send it to Choralmere, and he knew you were coming here a lot, so he gave it to us." She saw Linh's expression and grinned. "He said he used plants and lapis for the paint. I hope you aren't allergic."

Fitz called out something that Linh didn't hear, but Biana did. Her ears turned pink. "Anyways, yeah. I wanted to show you that."

Linh grinned at her. "Thank Keefe for me. I have a feeling that if I do, he'll just tease me."


	2. Chapter 2

_If you're ever feeling lonely, if you're ever feeling down_

 _You should know you're not the only one 'cause I feel it with you now_

 _When the world is on your shoulders and you're falling to your knees_

 _Oh please_

 _You know love will set you free._

 _Love Will Set You Free,_ Kodaline

Linh didn't know whether to hug or punch Fitz.

'Her' room was covered with a thick, viscous liquid that looked like selkie skin.

"Fitz!" Biana groaned.

"What?" Fitz asked, looking bewildered. Or maybe... Maybe not. Something about it looked fake.

Biana pointedly looked around at the selkie skin everywhere.

"What— oh." Fitz looked guilty. Again, something was off. "Sorry, I thought this was Alvar's old room. He _did_ need redecorating."

"Couldn't disagree with that. But Linh's not sleeping in Alvar's room—" she broke off, staring at Fitz. "Fitz! You didn't."

There was a small smile on Fitz's face. He said nothing to clarify, though, continuing, "yeah, wouldn't make her sleep in Alvar's bed, and she couldn't sleep with me or Mom and Dad."

The desire to hug or punch Fitz intensified. How did he know? Actually, she was sure Fitz didn't know, or else it would've gotten to Sophie, and Sophie would probably accidently mention it to Keefe, causing Keefe to have several vomiting episodes via Annoyed Hydrokinetic.

"I heard you guys had a slumber party at Dex's. Do you still have the sleeping bags?" The Vackers looked relieved she interrupted their sibling argument, Fitz especially. Biana looked a little… Annoyed though.

"Yes. I can get them later." There was something in his tone. He's probably relieved Biana didn't bite his head off. In all likeliness, that was probably literally.

So that is how she ended up in Biana's room in a sleeping bag, wondering if she should punch or hug Fitz.

It is a very interesting debate.

She found herself worrying about Tam. Sure, she said that he can take care of himself, but that was so they wouldn't fuss about her 'losing' her brother. She was scared practically to death about him. Lady Gisela said Tam wouldn't be getting it easy, like Keefe, but it wasn't exactly all fun and games for Keefe. And Linh knew firsthand how easily abused children are manipulated. Linh easily caved into Mother. She had constant nightmares about one day, seeing a group of Neverseen, one flicking his hood to reveal Tam's face, cold and harsh. She shuddered. If Keefe…

"Linh?" Biana's voice was hesitant. Normally, Linh would be extremely annoyed if her thought are interrupted. Today, she was glad. It wasn't as if it was all glorious in her head.

"Yeah?"

Linh imagined Biana resting on her back, her hands resting on her chest, all calm and relaxed. "If you don't mind… Why are you temporarily, err, 'homeless'?"

Linh supressed a smile. _And_ _this is what you get when you have sixteen-year-olds trying for tact._ "It's fine. We wanted— well, I wanted, Tam didn't— to try living with our family. Mother was trying, I could tell. But, she was off for a trip to who knows where. And Father alone, especially without Tam, that I couldn't stand. I could tell that he's going to try to pass me off as an only child."

Biana was quiet for a moment. "I-I'm sorry," she said quietly, "I wish I could help."

"You are helping."


	3. Chapter 3

_I wanna tear down these walls that can't hold you inside_  
 _And rip out the cords and uncover your eyes_

SYML, _Girl_

"Biana! _Wake up!_ "

Biana's eyes flitted open, registering Linh's face. She was panting. That nightmare... It was so _real._ Vespera's laugh echoed in Biana's ears, even though she knew no sound resemblant to laughter came out of Vespera's mouth. Her scars tingled, a ghost of the glass's vicious slashes in the dream. Her hand flew up. Her _scars_. Of course the elixir had to lose effect _now._

"Wha-what? Sorry, I need a moment." Biana let herself quail for one moment, pressing the heels of her hands to her eyes, then jerking her hands to her side. "Yeah?"

Linh looked worried. "You were thrashing in your sleep. Calling out. Something about Vespera?"

Her voice. It was almost as if she was more worried than she-

 _No. No, stop. It's not like that. Lylie, Lylie, Lylie._

Biana tried to ignore how the word is like a stab in her chest. She _really_ needed to stop hoping. "Yeah. Vespera."

Hesitating, Linh sat on the edge of the bed. Biana scrambled up, panicking as the blankets tightened around her. She tried to remember how to breathe as ropes tightened around her, remnants of her nightmare.

Linh looked up, startled. "What?"

Biana tried to breathe. "Nightmare. Ropes." She tried to shake the vivid, horrifying images out of the head. Biana bound in a chair, glass in her scars which were no longer white, but a dark, dark crimson. In front of her... Linh. Fintan burning the Linh again and again, Vespera holding knives to Linh's skin, laughter thick with sadism. The panicky feeling that the ability to stop this is right at her fingertips, but _just_ out of reach.

Biana shuddered; she knew it was selfish, but she was secretly glad that Tam joined the Neverseen. If what happened to Wylie- she flinched again- happened to Linh... She wouldn't know what she would do.

"Ah." Linh shifted to a position that would allow Biana the most space possible. She hesitated, but then asked, "Vespera?"

Biana swallowed, trying to force her voice to be as calm as possible. "Yeah. But no. I wasn't the one getting tortured. Not really. I always see my friends being burnt, cut, sometimes Gethen-" Biana flinched violently as she remembered, one time, Linh's expression as Gethen showed a live relive of Wylie's torture. That was another thing. Her nightmares always manages to find the solid cracks in her armour. It always finds the images that would hurt the most.

Her terror and heartsickness manifested as bitterness. Linh's silence only seemingly confirmed her doubts. Before Biana could stop it, the thought escaped her lips. "Yeah. I know. I'm so useless even my inner demons know it's unrealistic to make me the one tortured for information."

Linh moved, and suddenly, a pair of fierce, silvery-blue orbs floated above Biana. "You aren't worthless. Someone worthless wouldn't have been able to take down Ruy. Someone worthless wouldn't be able to find the secret of Lodestar. Someone worthless wouldn't be able to take down Fintan and Vespera. Maybe Sophie has done better, maybe a bunch of others had too, but that doesn't change the fact that, without you, Sophie and the others wouldn't have had the chance to."

Biana caught her breath as the silver tips of Linh's hair brushed her face. For one second, Linh's unreadable mask parted, revealing sympathy, worry, but, mostly, something Biana had no name for. Something that every feeling she had ever hidden rose to meet.

 _Kiss her already!_ Some part of Biana yelled. But before Biana mustered enough courage, the moment ended and Linh pulled away.

There was silence after, but luckily not the awkward type. Though the fact that it wasn't quite comfortable should've told Biana something.

Before Biana could lose her nerve (or fall back asleep), she murmured, "Linh, could you stay? I'm scared of another nightmare. And I might wake you up again."

She could feel Linh's muffled laughter as she slid under the covers next to Biana. "My sleep _is_ important."

(Sorry that I took so long. Writer's block. Couldn't get this right)


	4. Chapter 4

_Sandman, I'm so alone_  
 _Don't have nobody to call my own_  
 _Please turn on your magic beam_ _  
 _Mr. Sandman bring me a dream__

 _Hurt for Me,_ SYML

Linh woke to two dressed elves. Her eyes found Biana as one them, then Sophie as the other. Her cheeks turned red as the memories came to her. Last night, Biana snuggled against her, the feel of Biana pressed against Linh's body, even through cloth, even though she was just Biana's personal teddy bear that night… Yeah, the intimacy of it wasn't something she was used to.

 _Sure. Keep talking._

Linh tried to put it out of her mind. As she did, Sophie's hushed whisper registered to her. "-should tell her."

"Alright. But you'll owe me." Biana.

"Sure."

Linh's eyes instinctively closed when she heard the footsteps. Okay then, whatever. She heard the bed creak as Biana sat next to her. Something brushed her hair out of her face.

Biana's breath tickled her face as she whispered, "Linh. Wake up."

"What?"

"Sophie asked me to tell you something, but I think you should get dressed first."

Linh shrugged, getting to her feet. Then she grinned at Biana "I thought you were all ready to turn me into your personal dressmaker's dummy."

Biana shrugged too, something like tension in her face. "I don't have anything to play dress-up with, so... Though I have a grey-blue dress that I think might suit you."

"Okay." Biana was right. It did suit her, but then again, Linh's fashion sense was reduced to the _not quite terrible_ level.

"So... What happened?" Linh asked, not liking the way Biana was twisting her hands. Whatever this is, it isn't going to be good.

Later, she couldn't remember what exactly happened in Biana's room. She could only remember the shock, the way Biana's words echoed in her head, refusing to get out, and, after what felt like an eternality later, how she finally, painfully, forced her mind back into her head.

"Mother..." Linh whispered, refusing to believe it, "is _dead?_ "

Biana twisted her hands together so hard Linh heard a crack. "Yeah." Biana swallowed. "Quan said she washed up on Choralmere, her f-"

"Don't!" Linh covered her ears. Something about this information, other than the obvious fact that Mai is dead, bothered her, but she couldn't tell what it was. It the same annoying feeling-

"Of course." Linh heard Biana's hands crack again.

"I'm not going to go into full panic mode, you know. Tell me what happened, but, _please,_ details are to be feared."

Biana laced her hands together. "He says-"

"Hold on," Linh interrupted, "why _says_?"

"There's no doubt that it happened, but Keefe, ever the Empath, says there's something fishy about him that made us think he made some of the details up."

Linh nodded, prompting Biana to continue her voice was heavy with... _Something._ Linh couldn't quite tell what it was. "He says- he says she washed up two days ago. He didn't say much details. He also said that he'd like to plant her Wanderling somewhere secluded for himself."

Suddenly, Linh couldn't breathe. Her _Wanderling._

 _Lord, no no no no no. Please, no._

But, of course, images leapt, unbidden and unwanted, into her mind's eye. Umber's tree. The silvery-blue colour of the flowers, the creamy colour of its bark, even its black tips, slowly replaced by a face, only now, its silver-blue eyes held no kindness, its gentle lines turning hard and cruel.

It's so obvious now that she looked at it that way.

Slowly, her internal panic gave away to one mantra: _I have to find Tam._

Because if Tam finds out by himself, and the Sokeefe situation happening as it is, there's no way to tell _what_ he'll do.


	5. Chapter 5

_We go out on our own_  
 _It's a big bad world outside_  
 _Carrying our dreams and all that they mean_  
 _Trying to make it all worthwhile_

 _Big Bad World,_ Kodaline

"Yesterday. Why- why was Linh there?"

Biana's lips twisted. "Linh doesn't want you and the others to know."

Sophie's eyebrows rose. Her thoughts couldn't have been clearer if they were written on her forehead.

"Not that way!" Biana yelped. "She just… Doesn't want to worry anyone."

Sophie didn't argue. She glanced at Biana's face, as if trying to glean something. "Does she know? You know," Sophie tapped her chest, at the space where her heart is.

"Do you ever get the feeling that us teenagers have the most complex language made just to avoid saying 'love' or 'crushes' and etc.?"

"You're deflecting."

Biana sighed. "No she doesn't. And I'm not going to tell her now," she added, seeing Sophie's expression. "What's happened with her family, something about it broke her. If you had seen her yesterday… "

Biana didn't know why she didn't see this before. Maybe it was her crush. Maybe it was her privilege as a Vacker. Whatever the case, she could see Linh slowly filling out. Small details and huge aspects of her behavior contributing to her image of Linh, changing slowly from a two dimensional image of a gentle, kind girl Biana loved but only gazed from afar that blocked any evidence otherwise to a three dimensional, _full_ _,_ idea of Linh. Broken, still finding the pieces. Masked, still unable to reveal herself for more than a brief moment.

"Have you thought of-"

"Living up to the Vacker stereotypes and giving her a gift?"

Sophie shrugged. The eloquence of it was annoying. It let Biana make her own arguments. "All right, fine, yes, I did, but I didn't know what to give."

Besides, it'll just be awkward.

"I'm guessing makeup -" Biana's expression sent Sophie quickly backtracking. "Pastries? Okay that's another nope."

"I'd thought about, you know, _Song_ , but it's not like there's anything I can _give_ for that."

"Wait-" Biana could see Sophie's got something. "Humans have these musical instruments. There's this one called a violin that I studied for… Extra credit. I can still remember the blueprints. We can get the gnomes to make one. As for learning, well you elves are such geniuses anyways…" Sophie grinned when Biana swatted her arm.

The next hour was spent by Sophie using her iPod to show Biana what a violin is and how it works.

"Okay. Let's find Flori."

The violin didn't take long to make. According to Sophie, it takes humans around ten days to make one. It was basically *poof* for gnomes. As a special touch, Flori made the bow out of a panakes branch.

"Okay, so where's Linh?" Biana asked, running her hands over the beautifully made instrument.

Sophie's hand crept towards to the closet where she usually kept her Spyball. Biana could tell that she wasn't actually going to use it, but Sophie's eyes widened. "Where's my Spyball?"


	6. Chapter 6

Linh was at the place she all but swore never to go back again. The past few days, she'd been spending time at the secret cave at the Wildwood Colony, using Sophie's Spyball, trying to figure out where Tam was.

It was all too simple, it was surprising she didn't realise before. Maybe, if Tam was presented with the same clues, he would've found out a lot earlier. Linh lacked Tam's ability to believe the worst about people, the way Tam lacked Linh's ability to believe the best.

Some part of her noted how alike she was at this moment to the zombie-mode Sophie, most of them… Well, they were to zombie to care.

"Show me Tam Song," Linh whispered to the Spyball. Thank lord: unlike the past few days, Tam was near water, and Linh didn't have to do Sandor's exercises as part her deal to make up the day.

Linh concentrated, and a hand appeared next Tam. If she wasn't so worried, she would've been amused by the squeak Tam let out. At this state, her lips twitched.

 _T-A-M I-M-P-O-R-T-A-N-T G-O W-A-N-D-E-R-L-I-N-G W-O-O-D-S_ , Linh spelled.

She saw his quick nod. She had never been so grateful for his tendency to believe her without explanation. Manipulating water like this was exhausting.

She glanced up and sighed. It'll take a long walk to be able to light leap again.

Linh anxiously took her bearings for what seemed like the twentieth time in a minute. She wondered why Tam wasn't here yet. The fact that Umber's Wanderling was planted should be an incentive big enough for Tam to make an excuse to get here. Umber's Wanderling was planted as a lure, anyways.

Linh tensed, hearing a noise, but then relaxed. _It's probably just a passing squirrel, Linh,_ she chided herself. But she couldn't help herself. The truth about the Wanderling had banished all the possible comfort she had when being next to the tree.

She shuddered, remembering her mother's kind smile, how she offered advice when Sophie and Fitz were injured, how many times she said that she was sorry and wanted to make it up to her, how, every day, there will be all those small gestures of kindness.

How many of those were done as Mai, the mother whose children ran away, who regrets driving them away?

How many was done by Umber, the cruel exploiter, seeking access to their plans against the Neverseen?

Did she already know what was going to happen? How did she plan it, knowing that Linh was the more trusting twin, more likely to believe the best of others? How many more barbed hooks were supposed to be latched onto Linh's mind? Umber couldn't have known how deep the hooks would go, how much damage it would do. Was it a part of the plan to shatter Linh's heart into pieces, or was it just collateral damage?

How many ignorant nights did Linh spend under that roof, not knowing that everything she tried to stop, tried to survive from, they were caused by people that she had no choice to trust?

The whisper she'd been waiting for burst through her bubble of darkness. "Linh. What's going on?"

But not the voice.

A scream escaped her lips as she spun around to see, not Tam, but the member of the Neverseen that haunted her nightmares, Trix.

Her father, Quan.


	7. Chapter 7

His lips twisted. "Well, how nice to see you again."

Before Linh could react, he flicked his hands. Linh gasped, doubling over as all the air in her lungs flew out. She sucked in a breath, trying to get some in air in. Any air in. But no. Quan was a master Guster. He drained all the air around her in a two-metre radius.

Linh raised her hands, causing ice-cold water to drop on his head. Quan flinched, and a bit of air entered Linh's lungs. She used telekinesis to knock his feet under him. _Come on! Just let me-_

"I see your stubbornness hasn't changed." Quan's lips curled up. A second later, something slammed into Linh, pinning her down, folding her into the fetal position so it's even harder to breathe. There's air back in her lungs now. Of course. Quan wouldn't have let her take the easy way down. She tried to summon water but can't. Her telekinesis was gone too. Dimly, she felt the metal circlet on top of her head. _So_ that's _why he took so long._

Her eyesight started to dim. Voices started calling to her.

Wylie. Mai. Tam. Voices she didn't know. They blended into one voice. Plaintive, accusing, pleading. The voices tore at her mind, calling for her to come to them.

There was a warm light behind Quan.

 _Is this it? Am I going to die?_

But Linh couldn't feel the panic anymore. It all fell away. Her mind was blanked, peaceful. After all those years fighting the numbness, she began to hate numbness. But this feeling, it was the _good_ kind. Like how, caused by her parents, Linh's nervousness was like being jabbed by nails. But when it's because of-

Linh went rigid with shock. Her lips shaped the name.

 _Biana._

For, behind Quan, backlit by the core of light, there she was.


	8. Chapter 8

(And here we go! The full circle)

Linh sat up sharply and stared. Biana's eyes were wild, almost panicking. She was so pale that even if she didn't take the elixir, her scars would still be visible. Shock coursed through Linh: Biana never was never like this, her control so deeply ingrained in her.

"Linh?" Biana whispered. So much was packed in that one syllable. Relief, despair, blame, and something so palpable Linh felt like she could feel it between them, pulling them close; only their careful, practiced control stopping them from clashing together. Something rose in Linh. Something that she had no control over.

"I had to find Tam! My parents—"

Biana's voice seemed to explode out of her. "You didn't have to do this alone! By the time I found you in the Wanderling Woods you were barely breathing! Their Guster—"

"Yes! _Quan_ nearly killed me! If he would do that, what would happen to you?!" And she couldn't have let Biana know. Trix and Umber did so much to everybody Biana's ever cared about. How that would translate onto Linh, she could very well guess.

"Are you kidding me!? I nearly _faded_ trying to find you!" Biana's eyes raked her, wild, desperate. "I wouldn't live if you died. I wouldn't _want_ to!"

Linh stared at her, shocked. She'd never seen Biana like this. So close to losing control. The other girl's defences were so perfect, but, tonight, relief punched through her guard, leaving her defenseless. She could see the naked need in Biana. It was strange. Linh had barely known Biana, but she already could read the other girl's emotions as if it was written.

"I wouldn't want to live without you either." Linh's voice was soft.

She didn't know what happened next. Whether she'd reached for Biana first or if Biana reached for her first. Maybe both. She didn't care. The impact knocked her backwards. And then Biana was kissing her.

Her blood roared to life, packing more force than the flood in Ravagog. The last few days, she felt dead, as if she was slowly fading. But as the flames roared through her, it rejuvenated her cells, bringing every nerve to life. She saw now that the desire in Biana's eyes were her own, reflecting back to her.

Biana gasped when Linh slipped her hands under her tunic, the sound a mingled note of surprise and desire. _Too much. Too much._ Biana overwhelmed her senses, her scent, the feel of her skin, the impossible sweetness of her mouth, she was surprised her sixteen-year-old body didn't spontaneously combust.

Linh's fingers were still playing with Biana's hair when she finally pulled away. As she finally got her breath back, Biana looked up and grinned. "Friday at Atlantis?"

Of course Biana would think of dates first.


	9. Part Two Chapter 1

(Onto Phase Two!)

"Tam!" Linh streaked towards her brother, who just appeared out of the forest, hugging him close.

There were murmurs and gasps, and suddenly, the whole gang went to greet him. Well, to Tam, it might be closer to strangling.

"You coming?" Sophie asked Keefe, who suddenly seemed very interested in the ground.

"Nah," he mumbled, "I'll go find him later. Maybe plan a few pranks."

"Well... Okay." Tam's 'kidnapping' seemed to hit him hard, but okay.

"How did you get away?" Biana was asking when Sophie got to the group. She was beside Linh, holding her hand, like always.

Tam's eyes were focused on something behind them, something far away, but they snapped back. "Huh? Oh. The Neverseen's training was a bit too extensive for their own good."

Sophie got the feeling that he's not too happy with something in this group. It couldn't be Linh and Biana, judging by how he acts around them, and she knew for sure that he doesn't have a crush on her, but those were the only thing she thought of.

"Oh and Sophie?" Tam asked as the group dispersed slightly. "Could you probe me later? I- I want to be sure about something."

 _Ah. Bingo._

"Sure." If she could get to Fitz. He practically went to hiding when she and Keefe got together. To get the full gang here for a meeting was... Hard.

He relaxed slightly. "Thanks. By the way, why is Keefe- well, I figured he'd be inviting me to joke on the ships by now."

Sophie shrugged. "I'm pretty sure he's planning a 'special welcome' for you. Special as in full of pranks."

Tam's lips twitched, but his gaze was still fixed on something faraway. "One of these days I have to hire a bodyguard."

"You know it's bad when bodyguards are now only guarding against pranks."

"And as chaperones."


	10. Part Two Chapter 2

(This next part of the idea I planned is probably going to be a bit fragmented. I'm okay at thinking individual scenes but bad at stringing them together.)

"So. Tam's back," said Biana, falling onto her bed.

"Yep." Linh cradled Biana's head, gently drawing her fingers through her hair. "It's just... Things are going to be weird, what's with Keephie."

"Wait-" Biana turned to face Linh. "He likes Sophie?"

"No. And it's his secret," Linh added, as comprehension dawned on Biana.

"Ah. You know, sometimes it does seem like Keefe likes Tam. I mean, you Songs _are_ cute." Biana smiled fondly at Linh, drawing her lips down the other girl's neck.

Linh said nothing, but her blush told everything.

She kissed Biana lightly. "How long do you think you can keep Woltzer away?"

"As long as you want. I did warn him of-" Biana raised her eyebrows, glancing at the nonexistent space between them, loving how Linh blushed even deeper.

"You do know how to have a good time," Linh agreed, blushing hard.

Turning around, Biana's eyes gleamed. "Come here, Song." _Even though that seems a bit impossible._

Biana kissed Linh's cheek, tracing her lips across Linh's collarbone, up her neck, her jaw and then finally her mouth, her touch like butterflies. Linh gasped under her, then softening.

There was none of the frenzy of _that_ time, the first time. That time, there was a high urgency. Biana thought Linh was going to die. Now, they had all the time they wanted. Linh kissed her back, gentle at first, then harder, the kisses deepening slowly, a gentle promise.

Biana's hand tangled themselves in Linh's hair, pulling her closer as Linh's fingers traced her skin-

"Biana- Oh god I'm sorry." Biana and Linh sprang apart, embarrassed. Fitz was at the door, looking more embarrassed than elvinly possible " _So_ sorry."

"You can go now," Biana suggested through her teeth.

"Yeah-sorry-sure." After a few mumbled apologies, Fitz all but ran out of the room.

Biana looked at Linh, amusement sparking in her eyes. "Well, _that_ was unexpected. You were saying something about Woltzer?"


	11. Part Two Chapter 3

(Two years ago)

Dex lay in his bed, thinking. Quite a lot of his dreams were a rather _distinctive_ teal. And he always awoke from his nightmares with that colour on his mind. He'd thought it was Biana, but, that night, he'd took an elixir, and, no. Nope. It wasn't Biana.

 _Nope. Nope. Just nope. He isn't interested. Thank you. Goodbye._

 _What? Just going to brainstorm random ideas to keep him away? Or random nicknames?_

 _Not actually a bad idea. Let's go with... Wonderboy?_

 _I'm shipping you two already._

 _BRAIN!_

* * *

Fitz walked back to his room, deeply shaken and vaguely nauseous. It was one thing to have someone he loved fall in love with his best friend, and to have said best friend reciprocate. It was another to have that happen when living with a love-giddy sister. He liked Linh, and he thought Linh would be a good match for Biana, but it isn't going to sit well with his dinner.

When he was walking back to his room, the thing he wanted to think about the _least_ popped up in his head. Of course. Why not?

He remembered how, when Keephie was revealed official, there was an emotion in the back of his mind that, even through the devastation, felt suspiciously like... Relief. Coloured by periwinkle.

* * *

And so began the careful dance between Fitz and Dex.


	12. Part Two Chapter 4

(By the way, I don't really like the plot I planned anymore, but it'll probably be interesting to write so...)

"So I'm pretty sure the Neverseen did something to my head, so I was hoping you could do something and find out what it is," Tam explained.

"How do you know?" Keefe asked, still not quite looking at Tam.

A small smile curled Tam's mouth. "I don't think having that much nightmares is possible with some supernatural assistance."

"Try me. Or rather, my parents," said Keefe, matching Tam's smile the same time as Sophie inquired, "with us elves, isn't _everything_ kind of supernatural?"

She regretted it the moment Keefe smirked. "Keep up the snark, Foster."

 _Why,_ why _did I think the teasing would lessen when we're dating?_

 _You have unrealistic expectations of me, Sophie._

"Wait. If they set up something in your head, wouldn't they set up barriers?" Sophie's heart dropped when Tam nodded. "I wish you told me. Then I could've found Fitz. Could've used a boost."

"You think the shadow I slipped into your head- that sounds wrong now- would work?"

Sophie considered it. "Yeah, probably."

"And I'm here, so that wasn't needed."

Sophie spun around.

She felt her mouth stretch into a smile. _Fitz._

* * *

"Yeah, okay. No need to look so surprised," Fitz grumbled. Then, his eyes shifting to Sophie's hand, entwined with Keefe's, he smirked, but it looked off. "And maybe I still don't want to hear your happily ever after, but I'm also done being a complete idiot."

"Wow," Keefe said to nobody in particular. "When did you sign up for the position of jokester?"

"About the same time as you did. I just had a better ability to keep my mouth shut."

"Complaints on the word 'better'."

"Before we get _too_ off topic," Sophie interjected, "could we actually get on with the probing? What are we looking for?"

"Just anything a bit off," Tam told her. "And I know that it'll take a long time. But we all know how good Gethen is."

Sophie shrugged. "All right." She took off her crush cuffs, which were now saying _Sophie Foster + Keefe Sencen_.

Keefe looked thoughtful. "Maybe I can help. You know how Forkle said that emotions relating to a memory can't get erased." His eyes finally shifted to Tam's face, examining the expression that just slammed shut. "I'm pretty sure I know what I know what you're thinking. _No_ way _am I letting this guy see my feelings, even though he's the_ cutest _elf ever._ " Sophie thought she saw Tam wince. "And I get it. Having somebody in your head, that's just creepy. Having something in your innermost feelings that even you're not aware of? That's beyond messed up-"

"Wait for it," Tam interjected the same time Keefe said, _"but,_ I can promise I can block your emotions. I won't look at what you don't want me to. I've been practicing blocking emotions after Vespera, and I'm able to block out how awesome Foster thinks I am, so I think I'm good to go. Although," he added as an afterthought, "I'm able to feel how annoyed Foster is with me, so maybe I _am_ bad at sensing surprise emotions."

More so the don't stretch this conversation to next week, Sophie grabbed Fitz and Keefe's hands. Keefe made a strange sound when she accidently bumped Fitz's hand with his, but his expression was blank. Sophie shrugged, delving into Tam's mind.

The next few hours were both fruitless and frustrating. There were so many dead ends. So many things that looked promising but were just stinging pricks at Tam's pride, snubs and put-downs about Linh that he'd gone on and forgot about.

The last half-hour, Sophie wished she could unsee what she saw, unsee seeing Quan raging at Tam and Linh. Unsee Mai's barbed comments. Unsee all the horrible things they had go undergo because they were twins. Elves, they pride themselves on being perfect and good, but more and more, Sophie saw the cracks in their society, how drawing a comparison with them and the elves in the Magnus Chase series wouldn't be so hard.

As they went through the last memory Tam let them see, Sophie felt Fitz slump, dropping her hand. "So that was for nothing."

"Not for _nothing,"_ Keefe disagreed, dropping her hand also, but he didn't say how.

Sophie was going to drop her hand from Tam's temples, but, at the last second, she saw a suspicious, dark, shadowy path branching in Tam's head. She pushed her mind that way-

 _No._ Tam thought at her. _Not that one._

 _But that one would be the perfect place to hide something-_

No! _Sophie! Don't!_

 _But why! Why-_

Sophie's transmission trailed off. She hadn't realised she pushed into the path. She stared at what was in it, dread and sadness mixing inside her.

 _Tam? Is this... Is this a joke? You're not-_


	13. Part Two Chapter 5

(Sorry about the wait; writer's block came at the _worst_ possible time. And sorry that I've probably got the thought processes of someone self-harming wrong as an as-of-now emotionally stable person.)

Tam walked into the woods, not knowing where he was going.

It was a day after the probe, and the memory was branded into his brain. He could see Sophie's horrified face, but worse was how _oblivious_ Keefe was. He-

Tam snapped his thoughts back on a safer road. He'd gotten good at that. People usually regard pyrokinesis as the unstable ability, but, really, being a Shade is downright dangerous if the Shade wears their heart on their sleeve. Probably not unlike Empaths-

 _God, Tam. And you wonder why people suspect you to be crazy._

Snapping his gaze to the sky, Tam realised that he'd missed class. Oh well. The next one, Elven History, right now was just talking about how much of glorified gods elves were. And how much similar to dirty beasts humans were. Of course. Now that the news about Nightfall and Vespera is starting to come out via council, they're going to overcompensate. Nobody would bat an eye at torture if the victim was villainized like the humans soon would be.

With how deeply the elves screwed up, sometimes Tam wondered why it took someone raised by a human to see the things that needed changing.

And the fact that the said someone needs five bodyguards, five abilities, friends with insane abilities, and a Mesmer father to survive, well that says a lot.

He suddenly realised that people would think he's ditching. _Wonder what Keefe would-_

 _Damn it, Tam!_ Tam slammed his hand down then yelped. He looked around, disoriented, clutching his bleeding arm. He hadn't realised that he'd sat down, his back to a tree.

He regarded his the gash on his arm with dull interest then down to the rock that he'd accidently slammed his arm on. He picked it up. It was flint, plenty sharp. He turned it around, examining it disinterestedly.

Sophie's face horrified flashed in front of his face, and with it, an image of the old Prentice, his mind broken. He remembered the stories he was told, how Brant and Alden broke from guilt.

An image of Sophie, her eyes glazed, like shattered prisms, thrashing as if being burnt drifted past the jetsam into his mind's eye. He could see Keefe standing beside her, glaring at Tam.

Tam dug the flint into his arm, feeling a savage satisfaction at the stab of pain that shot up his arm. _Damn it, Tam! If Sophie's broken, you care about Keefe being_ mad _at you?!_

Tam tried to shut his mind off, finally get some rest, finally being free from the numbness and the hate, but his brain didn't listen; it never does. He cried out, making no sound, as he was swept away by the flood of images.

 _Quan's hand cracking across his face. A hard CRACK as his arm broke against the steel rod, defending Linh against a furious Quan. Mai's stinging remarks that condemned him as vermin. The whispers of the Waywards, Linh's face as she stood, pleading with another girl, her slender profile standing out clearly against the snow._

A white-hot node gathered in the back of his mind, poring burning acid through him, worse than when Gethen showed him live footage of Quan choking Linh, worse than when Fintan did to him when he found out that Tam had been trying to shadow-transmit the Neverseen's plans to the crew Keefe.

It snapped him out of his trance, making Tam become aware of something dripping onto his legs. He stared at the amount blood pooling on the ground, dull fear coating his insides. Humans can lose two litres of blood; elves can lose four. What was on the ground seemed too much; it looked so much more than four litres.

 _This is it. I'm really going to die. I'm really going to die._

(Oh yeah, on a scale Keefe joining the Neverseen to the Neverseen being disbanded, how bad of an idea is it to add a few of my own characters from this story I'm imagining?)


End file.
